Empowering Survivors

Relief – crisis response typically providing housing, food, and clothing. This is immediate, temporary care; sometimes provided as a first responder to a victim that will, now removed from her abuser, receive transportation back to her home or family or be offered a long term advocate to walk with her to a renewed life.

Rehabilitation – We provide victims a single point of contact to long term, comprehensive aftercare for survivors - assisting a survivor’s access to primary care and transformative care. In June 2011, we launched CARE – Community Aftercare Restoration Endeavor. This CARE network gives us the ability to partner with other agencies that can provide critical needs – individual and family counseling, healthcare, and more.

Development – the CARE network is also relevant in this phase as we work with the survivor to assess his or her needs for future development to an elevated standard of living since before exploitation. Recognizing a person is exploited because they are vulnerable streamlines us to recognize that without development in the form of skills classes, computer classes, GED assistance, ESL assistance, as well as a myriad of other potential needs, the survivor is still at risk for future exploitation.

Blossom House

Restore Corps currently provides specialized beds for some of the survivors in services. Some survivors have safe, sustainable housing, where others need beds and a home where they can begin a new life. Blossom House is this aspect of services.

We named this place “Blossom House” from a scripture in the Bible we find very encouraging.

“May there be abundance of grain in the land; may it wave on the tops of the mountains, may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field. Psalm 72:16 NRSV

Survivors move into this house primarily because violence has been done against them. “Cities” have a reputation for that – violence, crime, and selfishness – but, here, we believe people can blossom in the cities. We invite these survivors not just into this home, but also into a new story of blossoming in the city.